Bianca Michaela

Want to know the best formula on how to change your lifestyle to be healthy? We’re covering habit ideas and hacks to make sure your change to a healthy lifestyle is seamless.

 

Changing your lifestyle can be daunting, and if you’re anything like me it can be hard to know where to start and exactly how to make lasting effects. Today I’m going to share with you my fail-safe methods on how to change your lifestyle to be healthy.

You are going to learn the different lifestyle changes and what methods actually help to make the change sustainable.

After learning these tips and tricks you will know exactly how to change your lifestyle to be healthy in the most successful way possible.

This post is all about how to change your lifestyle to be healthy.

 

The Epic Formula on How to Change Your Lifestyle to be Healthy.

 

Things to keep in mind.

Sustainability.

Before we begin there are a few things we should keep in mind when we are changing our lifestyle, the first being the key word, LIFE. This change is for life, for a better life, a happier life, a longer and more enjoyable life. And so we have to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day, and nor can your lifestyle change in a day. We need to put in strong foundations which we can build upon to become that healthier version of ourselves. We don’t want the change to come crumbling down.
Each time I have a goal, I always want to make a drastic change to get there, but these types of changes last 2 or 3 weeks before I feel burnt out at the effort it takes to keep the change-up.
We want small ever lasting change.
How can we make changes sustainable?
We begin with baby steps, but also have a minimum requirement that needs to be done when life gets in the way.

Goal; 10-step skincare routine.
First step; cleanse and moisturise skin each day.
This first step is small and sustainable, this will be your default habit for when life gets in the way, you have too much to do today or you’re going away travelling and can’t take all your products. This will be the minimum you do for your health.

Enjoyable.

LIFE. We know we’re making this change for life and so it’s obvious if we don’t enjoy it we can’t keep it up. Find ways to make sure you’re enjoying your new change, and don’t force yourself to lift weights to keep fit if what you really enjoy is a good dance. Do what you love.

 

Habit ideas and their hacks.

In this section, we’re going to be taking a look at what habits we can create to make a healthy lifestyle, but also hacks for each habit idea.

1) Diet.

This word gets a bad rap because most people assume it means reducing what we eat. Diet is essentially what we are putting in our mouths, and to create a good one in the easiest way possible we just need to make sure we are eating ‘clean’. This means to eat food in its most original form, not processed and altered before you get your hands on it to cook it.

Diet hacks.

Don’t change it all in a day. Is it a good idea to do a massive grocery haul and only get healthy foods into the house? Yes.
Do you need to have meal plans covering the span of a week organised and meal prepped? No.
But only because this is such a drastic change it’s not sustainable to you. Start out with breakfast ideas, play around until you find one you like and stick it into your life for a few weeks. Once you’re comfortable with this change, now make the change with your dinners.
Easy sustainable steps.

 

Water intake.

How much water should we be drinking? The Mayo Clinic recommends women drink 2.7 litres and men have 3.7 litres. Drinking water can help us rock our workouts, help with brain function and energy levels and can aid with weight loss.
Do you need more reasons to up that water intake?

 

Water hack.

This one is probably one of the easiest habits to hack.
Get a 1-litre water bottle with a straw, and carry it with you everywhere.
This makes sure no matter where you are or what you’re doing, a drink is always there for you if you need a sip. And the straw? You drink a lot more than a sip with a straw.

 

Get active.

This and diet are probably two of the hardest habits to change. The ones that most people struggle with. Exercise especially because it requires so much physical effort on our side, and because of this, it requires a few more hacks to keep it going. If you need to know the reasons to exercise check out my post on the benefits here.

 

Get active hacks.

The good news is that it doesn’t require 5 1 hour gym sessions a week to feel the benefits. Remember what we said about sustainability.
Choose a small step to start with.
Decide on a minimum requirement for when life gets in the way.

Accountability.

Whether that be a friend joining you in class or signing yourself up for a challenge, getting active is a lot easier when we have something that has a consequence or a positive outcome related to it. An external form of motivation makes getting active a lot easier.

Make goals closer.

Booked a challenge in 4 months? Got that holiday in 4 months?
Sometimes a goal is so far off into the future it can be hard to motivate ourselves towards it. So break that goal down.
A useful quote I use is
“In two weeks you’ll feel it. After four weeks you’ll see it. In eight weeks you’ll see it.”
A goal broken down into closer mini-goals is a lot easier to work towards, this is because there are fewer tomorrows between now and two weeks away than now and 4 months away. The closer the deadline, the more likely we are to take action.

 

Make it fun!

I don’t need to explain this one.

 

Plan your week.

Don’t just say you’ll work out on Wednesday. What will you workout on Wednesday? Have it already planned, this way you can’t put it off because you’re stuck deciding what to do, get up and get on it.

 

Improve sleep.

If you want the benefits, check out more here, but they include benefits to your heart, weight and mind. 8 hours of sleep is the aim of the game so how can we improve it?

 

Sleep hacks.

Routine.

Have a bedtime routine, this helps to give your body a little nudge that you’re winding down. It doesn’t have to be an elaborate routine, remember we’re going for sustainability.
Mine is pretty simple, noise. I have two things which help my brain switch off at night and the start of these makes my brain know that now is the time for sleep.
1) Brown noise – the studies on white noise and brown noise for sleep have varying results. These noises are definitely a love-it-or-hate-it thing, so give it a try and see if it resonates with you.
2) An audiobook. The trick for this one is it’s the same book, same chapter each night. There’s something about my brain hearing a familiar storyline and reciting the words as we go along that reduces the traffic of thoughts in my head, and makes it easier for me to drift off to sleep.

 

Slow down / Mindfulness.

The world is so loud these days. We are always available to be contacted all thanks to our phones, not only through calls but texts, emails, Dm’s, likes, and comments, the list is endless.
More often than not we feel hard-pressed to get going and get going fast. This whizzing around can start to affect us and our thoughts, so it’s important to find ways to help us slow down and enjoy the day-to-day joys we experience.

 

Mindfulness hacks.

Take a day.

I dedicate a day each week to romanticising my life. If you’ve not heard of this before it basically means taking the everyday and making it extraordinary. I make the whole day a date with myself, we take it slow, enjoy the morning coffee and we don’t focus on being productive but rather on being present.
Within this day date with myself, I’ll include activities which help me to slow down, whether it be baking, painting, writing or creating maps.
It’s all about enjoying the passing of time and relaxing into the flow of the day.

 

Skincare.

Some might tell you this is the key to life, and definitely the key to wrinkles. To me, it’s the key to getting my makeup to go on flawlessly. If you look after your skin well you’ll find you are naturally more confident with being yourself, but also it’s a great time to be mindful and take some time for you.

 

Skincare hacks.

Sustainable.

I already noted at the start of this blog your skincare routine should be one that can be scaled back to the simplest of routines, one you can take with you anywhere, one that doesn’t require a great deal of effort when you’re exhausted at the end of the day.

Check out here for a simple skincare routine for your skin type, but it can usually be stripped back to a cleanser, serum and moisturiser.

 

Journal.

If I had to strip back my healthy habits to the ones that benefit me the most, this one and exercise are my non-negotiables. Hundreds of thoughts whizzing around my brain all day but I never stop and have a moment to reflect upon them, to give them the time that they need for me to accept and move on or to do something about them.
When I’ve been neglecting my thought they can build up like a boiling pot, and one day, when it’s definitely the worst timing, they boil over.
The good news is… I have the best hack for this.

 

Journalling hack.

Journalling doesn’t necessarily mean writing down your thoughts, it just means taking note of them and understanding what to do with them. When you talk through how you’re feeling it can be just as effective as writing it down.
Go on a ‘mental health walk’.
Take your headphones, open your phone to the recording app and hit record.

Trust me with this one. Will you look strange to passersby? Definitely, so maybe go somewhere quiet while you walk.
But there’s something about walking and talking that makes it a lot easier to deal with your problems, think them through, and get them off your chest.
Talk about how you’re generally feeling mentally today, anything that’s happened since you last checked it, what good things have you noted and what are your goals over the next day/days. If my emotions are ever building up it’s usually because I’ve been neglecting my thoughts and letting the pot boil.

 

I hope this blog gave you a few positive lifestyle changes and hacks to help you start that healthy lifestyle.

 

This post was all about The Epic Formula on How to Change your Lifestyle to be Healthy.

 

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